Go For the GOLD!

"An athlete gains so much knowledge by just participating in a sport. Focus, discipline, hard work, goal setting and, of course, the thrill of finally achieving your goals. These are all lessons in life.” — Kristi Yamaguchi, world champion figure skater

Did you all have the opportunity to watch the Winter Olympics? What an exciting time! You couldn’t help but be inspired, motivated and PROUD as you watched these young athletes give it their ALL for their team, their sport, and their country!

The quote above by world champion figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi does an excellent job of summarizing exactly what motivates these athletes to win and HOW they do it. This quote is also an excellent metaphor on how we can live our lives. It provides us with a blueprint on how to win in the gold medal in the game of life. Think about it, each day are you practicing these five principles?

Focus: Do you know what you are striving towards? Have you clearly identified what you truly want in life? It is important that you become crystal clear in this area so that you can focus on what you want. Visualize your Success!

Discipline: It takes a lot of discipline to reach our goals! If you’ve ever been on a diet, you know the importance of discipline. It is really about focusing on the long term results and having the control to pass over the short term gratifications that throw you off track. Simply put, it is skipping desert in favor of going to the gym…practicing self control to reach our goals.

Hard work: Nobody ever said life was going to be easy. It takes hard work and perseverance to attain our goals. The Olympic athletes spend countless hours practicing and perfecting their skills to compete in the Olympics. In life, we also must work very hard to reach our goals. We must not accept being average, we must strive to be the best!

Goal Setting: Once you know what you want in life, the most important thing you can do is set specific goals. You can bet that every Olympian’s goal is to win a GOLD medal for their country. Once that goal is set, the next step is to create the action plan (and strategies) to achieve that goal.

Achieving your Goals: This is the thrill of the victory! The GOLD medal of life! Your pay off for having focus, practicing discipline, working hard and setting specific goals. When all of your hard work pays off and you have reached your goal!

Magic Eight Ball

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity!" Gilda Radner

Ambiguity is the property of being ambiguous, where a word, term, notation, sign, symbol, phrase, sentence, or any other form used for communication, is called ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way.

When you were a child did you have a Magic Eight Ball? It was this black ball and you would ask it a question, shake the ball, turn it over and a response would show up. For example, you might ask it if you were going to be asked to the ninth grade prom, and then you would get a reply like: Seems Certain! Or Highly Probable! It was a fun way to spend an afternoon with your teenage buddies, and always brought much laughter to the room.

As an adult, do you ever wish you had a crystal ball (or a REAL Magic Eight Ball) that would tell you what the future holds for you? The questions you might ask it today are probably a little different that when you were a child. You would probably ask it questions like: Will I get laid off from my job? Will I be able to pay my mortgage next month? Is my marriage going to make it through this rough patch?

We know that today's environment is scary for a lot of folks....there are a lot of things happening that we have no control over! And, for many, we automatically think that life would be easier if we had all the answers.....but, would it really be easier?

The above quote by Gilda Radner is one of our personal favorites. If you will recall, Miss Radner was a very popular comedienne and actress who lost a courageous battle with ovarian cancer when she was just 43 years old. Yet, even as she faced her deadly disease, she kept her spirit alive.

She understood that in life there are no guarantees, there is just life! And life was made for us to embrace, enjoy and without knowing what was around the next turn.

Think about it, there are no guarantees, there is only life. So, what are you going to do with yours?There is no Magic Eight ball to give you all the answers to your questions. That is part of the wonder of life! Never knowing what each day is going to bring.

Learn to embrace and celebrate each day. Do not fear the unknown! Instead, look at each day as a present! You never know what is inside the box until you open it.

Make Today a Masterpiece!